Secrets & Lies
by KyleGranger
Summary: Post Epilogue. James, Albus, Rose, Lily, Hugo, Scorpius, and their friends continue their education at Hogwarts. Read & Review!
1. Chapter 1

Secrets & Lies

KyleGranger

Chapter One

"Okay guys, say goodbye to your grandmother and grandfather," Ginny announced, "and Uncle George is in the living room."

James, Albus, Rose, Lily, and Hugo all sat up from the breakfast table at the Burrow and said goodbye to their grandparents.

"You two have a great time, and I'll see you both at Christmas," Molly said hugging her youngest grandchildren, Lily and Hugo.

"Are we all set in here?" Ron asked as he and Harry came through the doorway from outside where they were packing the car with school trunks.

Hermione and Ginny emerged from the living room with George and Arthur following them and Rose went to hug George and her grandfather goodbye.

"Have a good time sweetie," Arthur said to her as Lily and Hugo approached him to give him a hug.

"Okay, everyone in the car," Harry said, and like ants they marched out of the house towards the car. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny kissed and said goodbye to Arthur, Molly, and George before following their children to the car.

Once they arrived at King's Cross Station, they all jumped out of the comfortably, crammed car and the children grabbed their trunks as Harry and Ron unpacked them out of the car and followed each other into the station and through the barrier to get to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

The four parents looked at the Scarlet colored train that once brought them to their home-away-from-home. So many memories rushed through their minds at the sight of it.

"Bye mum," James said, seeming to be partly in a hurry and partly unsure.

"Bye honey," Ginny said, hugging her eldest son. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Is something bothering you-?"

"I said I'm fine, mum," James snapped.

"Hey!" Harry overheard, "What's with the attitude?"

"Sorry," James said, trying to get by. "I'm just...anxious...to get going."

"I understand," Ginny said, hugging him again and kissing him on the cheek. "I'm going to write you guys by the end of the week." James nodded and turned to hug his father.

"Have a safe trip, and take care of your brother and sister," Harry said, letting him go and patting him on the back.

"Jimmy!" called a voice from near the train.

James turned to see his best friends, Tracey and Gertie, standing just outside the entrance to a train car.

"Okay," James said, "bye." He quickly picked up his bag and ran over to the girls with Harry and Ginny saying "goodbye" as he ran off. They looked to each other with concerned expressions.

"Bye mommy," Lily said hugging her parents at the same time.

"Goodbye my beautiful girl," Ginny said, kissing her forehead.

"Bye, baby," Harry said, "Don't let your brothers pick on you." She gave an evil smirk and Harry laughed. Then, Lily skipped off towards the train with her cousin, Hugo.

Albus was left with Rose, who was saying goodbye to Ron and Hermione. He slowly approached them and gave them each a hug.

"Good luck, son. Hope you have a good year," Harry said tousling Albus' hair as Ginny gave him a final kiss.

"Bye guys," he said turning and walking towards the train with Rose.

Harry put his arm around Ginny as Ron had done to Hermione. Albus, Rose, Lily, and Hugo waved out the window of their car at their parents. Scorpius Malfoy waving to his parents as well from the same car. Harry turned to the direction the young Malfoy boy was waving and saw Draco Malfoy and his wife. Draco turned to see Harry and they slightly smiled at each other.

James was in the compartment next to his siblings and cousins, with his two best friends. They sat as there as the train began to leave the station. He watched his parents' faces fade away behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

Secrets & Lies

KyleGranger

Chapter 2

"Jim," Gertie said, "is something bothering you?"

James turned to see his two best friends looking at him from the opposite side of the compartment, as the stations platform quickly became bright green landscapes outside the window.

"I'm fine," he said turning to look back out the window.

Tracey and Gertie glanced at each other before giving up.

"So how was your summer," Gertie said talking to Tracey.

Tracey looked up from her lap and ran her fingers through her long brown hair getting it out of her view: "it was fine. My family and I went to Spain for a week like I told you in my letter. My brother ended up getting sick and we flooed home. We were supposed to be there for a month, but you know Twirp."

Gertie laughed. "James, how about you? How was your summer?"

James turned from looking out the window. "Er, it was fine. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house. And then I was in London for a weekend with Teddy's fiancé looking for a wedding dress."

Tracey giggled, "You went wedding dress shopping?"

"Er, I went to go to London for the weekend. I needed to get out of my house. Al gets annoying after a while and Lily always has her friends over," he said defensively.

"Okay, okay relax. How was your vacation Gert?"

"Really nice. My parents and I went to America for a wizarding convention, which was really awesome," Gertie said gleefully, her blonde hair relaxing gently on her shoulders.

"That's totally cool," Tracey said, flipping her hair behind her. "So, do you guys want to know something else that I did this summer?"

Gossip. This caught James' attention immediately.

"Spill," they said.

"So I go to Diagon Alley with the Twirp some random afternoon and I ran into Jake."

"Jake who?" Gertie asked.

"MacFarlan!" James answered. "Keep up!" They turned their attention back to Tracey.

"So I ran into him and we had lunch."

"Okay...?" James said leaning in, trying to find the point to this story.

"Oh well Twirp ended up getting lost somewhere. I found him in your uncle's shop, but before that me and Jake snogged," she said softly.

"You are so bad," James said sitting back with a smile on his face. "You and a seventh year. Who could've predicted that?" 

"I could have," Gertie said turning her attention back to her books.

"Seriously, Gert, I need to find you a boyfriend," Tracey said.

"Ha! Good luck with that one," she said, "no boy could like me."

"Oh my god, Gertie," James came in, "why do you have to be such a downer? Look at you. Blonde and brains. You're hot!"

Gertie blushed and looked up at James who looked to Tracey who nodded approvingly.

The compartment's door slid open and in walked a short second year with red hair and tears in her eyes.

"Jay-," Lily whimpered, "I think Clarabell ate Rupert." She pulled a small ginger-haired cat from behind her back.

AHH! Tracey jumped from her seat. A grey rat took her spot.

"OH DEAR GOD," Tracey screamed.

"Nevermind," Lily said, scooping up the Hugo's pet rat and scurried out of the compartment, running into a tall sixth year just outside the door.

"Whoa," the boy said.

"Lily!" James shouted. "Ugh!" Lily turned to reveal a sympathetic expression towards her brother.

"Sorry," she whispered, turning to the tall boy and said again to him.

"Ha! Don't worry about it," the boy said and Lily rushed back into her compartment with the others. The boy then leaned into James, Tracey, and Gertie's compartment. "Kids," he said smiling at them. He focused he eyes on each of the girls', then finally on James'. James smiled back as the boy slid the door closed, then continued his way down the train corridor.

**Okay, so I'm getting back into the swing of writing. I haven't written a fanfic in more than a couple years. I'm just trying to introduce characters in these first few chapters before moving on to the good stuff. Hope your enjoying.**


	3. Chapter 3

Secrets & Lies

KyleGranger

Chapter 3

The feast let out quickly. It felt like the list of students was shorter than usual, but it was probably all the catching up going on between the students that no one was paying attention to the sorting ceremony.

Rose, Albus, and Scorpius sat at their table with the rest of the scarlet-robed students. Albus was appetizing on the mountain of food he crammed onto his plate.

Lily and Hugo sat towards the front of the hall at the Ravenclaw table, chatting with nearby students and feasting on the food prepared by the house elves.

James, Gertie, and Tracey seated themselves near Rose and Albus, but at the same time they were far away enough to not have to talk to them.

The headmistress, Professor McGonagall, was seated in the headmaster's chair at the long table in the front of the Great Hall. Fellow teachers accompanied her. Professors Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley sit on her right with Madame Pince while Professors Hagrid, Lovegood, and Flitwick sat on her right. In the corner behind them Firenze, looking very tired, was talking to Argus Filch.

When the students were dismissed from the Hall, the three of them decided to take a walk down to the Quidditch field, mostly because the prefects were sure to be giving the first years the tour of the castle and their common room so they didn't want to wait for them to be finished.

The moonlight was their only source of light until they had reached the stadium. They walked up into one of the towers and were surprised when they reached to the top. Some students had already gotten their brooms and were tossing the quaffle around the field. Mostly upperclassman Hufflepuffs and a couple Slytherins. The stadium was illuminated with torches around the field making it seem like midday.

"Ooo," Tracey said diverting her attention to a nearby Quidditch player. "Guys! It's Jake."

"Jake?" Gertie questioned. 3 seconds later: "OH! Jake, Jake. Snog Jake. Okay. He's very cute Trac, I give you credit for that."

"Oh and there's Evan," James pointed out quietly.

"Evan?" Tracey said looking at James. "Who's that?"

Gertie turned her attention to him as well.

"A guy that was in one of our classes last year? Remember?" he said slyly.

"OH!" Tracey said in her own ditsy way, "Mhmm. Yep. I do remember."

Gertie pondered what James had just said then rolled her eyes and focused her attention back on the flying students in front of her. "Okay, I'm sorry, I'm bored. Do you think they're done in there?"

"Yeah, let's go," James agreed and began to walk away leaving Tracey staring the flying boys.

"Jim! Gertie! We should fly around next week. Get some exercise. You know?" Tracey suggested.

Gertie agreed along with James.


	4. Chapter 4

Secrets & Lies

KyleGranger

Chapter 4

The following morning, James met Tracey and Gertie in the Gryffindor common room and they walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast all dressed in their school robes. Classes start today.

Professor Longbottom was at the head of the Great Hall with the other three heads of house distributing class schedules.

"Hello Neville!" James said as he reached to the front of the line to get his schedule with the girls.

"Jim. You can call me Neville outside of school, but here it's professor or Longbottom or whatever," Professor Longbottom said looking around to see if anyone had heard them.

"Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I'm just used to calling you Neville from the summer and such," he said embarrassed.

"It's fine, here's your schedule," he said shuffling through the papers then handing one to him followed by Gertie and Tracey. The students then walked out of the Great Hall, grabbing some toast and patting their siblings on the head as they walked by.

"Ugh, Divinations this early in the morning?" Gertie said, upset.

"At least Firenze is teaching the course and not some random person we don't know," James said.

"I still miss Professor Tralawney," Gertie continued, "it was so horrible that she died."

"It was just her time," Tracey said and then, softly gasped.

"What?" James asked, hearing her.

Tracey turned in front of her two best friends and leaned in. She whispered, "It's Jake, in the corner, behind the statue. DON'T LOOK!" It was too late. Both James and Gertie turned their heads in the direction of statue she was referring to of a medieval wizard.

A tall boy with short dark hair and a few freckles here and there along his cheeks. Once James and Gertie turned to look at him, he quickly focused his attention on the statue, acting as though interested.

"What should I do?" Tracey said nervously.

"Er, go talk to him? Snog? Do whatever _you_ do?" Gertie said crossing her arms. James nodded in agreement.

"Just go over there. It's not like he's planning on killing you or something," James said, then he smiled and said mysteriously, "Unless you've done something…_bad_."

"Shut up," she said hitting him. "Okay, I'm going over there. I guess I'll see you guys in class."

Gertie and James watched her as she slowly walked over to him, then turned to continue their way to class.

Class went by as expected: slowly. James and Gertie sat at a circular table in the corner of the room. The only interesting part about class, besides the fact that Firenze gave them a quiz on their first day of class, was that the chair sitting between James and Gertie remained empty then entire class period. Tracey hadn't shown up at all.


End file.
